


Social Justice Enterprise

by KingHippiedude (missreader)



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Crossdressing, Jim in a dress, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-13
Updated: 2016-09-13
Packaged: 2018-01-24 13:39:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1607126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missreader/pseuds/KingHippiedude
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jim loses a bet and has to wear a female uniform. He keeps wearing it even after the terms of the bet are over, and the crew are really cool about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Dress

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [this](http://imagine-jim-bones-and-spock.tumblr.com/post/85160143165/imagine-jim-losing-a-bet-and-having-to-wear-the-female) post on tumblr.
> 
> I do not own these characters; I am just borrowing them.
> 
> I was envisioning the AOS cast when I wrote this, but I don't think there's any reason why it couldn't be TOS.

Jim had lost the bet. And now it was time to pay up. Things could be worse, he thought. The dress wasn’t really uncomfortable, but female uniforms weren’t really designed to fit more masculine bodies.

Guess it’s time to show my face on the bridge, he thought. He straightened the dress one more time and left his room to report for his shift.

There were a few laughs when Jim reported for duty in a dress. Sulu—who had been the one to make Jim wear the dress—said, “Looks good on you, Captain.”

“Dresses were inwented in Russia, you know,” was Chekov’s comment.

Jim laughed along with everyone else at that one, but otherwise he went about his job as usual.

Spock, of course, said nothing. It would be illogical to waste time commenting on the Captain’s choice of uniform.

After a while, the crew moved on and got back to work.

***

That night, Jim had Bones help him alter his dress to better suit his physique. If he was going to wear this thing all week, it might as well fit properly. It didn’t take much. The dress had to be large enough to fit his wide shoulders and needed to be taken in in places around the torso to accommodate his lack of curves.

“What are you doin’, kid? I didn’t know you could sew.”

“Course I can, Bonesy. You never know when it might be useful,” Jim said. “Now, can you help me pin this to where it needs to be sewn?”

“Whatever, kid. Stand still and keep your mouth shut, or I’ll stick you with one of these.”

Jim was a surprisingly competent sartor, and the dress fit quite nicely by the time he was done.

***

There were still a few giggles on the bridge the next day, but by the end of the week, the crew practically overlooked the Captain’s dress. That’s why, when Jim wore the dress the following day, even after the bet was up, it took a full half-hour before anyone noticed that it was odd.

“What? It’s comfortable. Get back to work,” was Jim’s only response to everyone’s questions. So, work they did. Regardless of what he was wearing, Jim Kirk was the best Captain in all of Starfleet, and his crew respected him. When a few rookies in security thought it would be funny to mock the Captain, they were promptly chastised.

It became routine to see the Captain wearing a dress around the ship, though he didn’t do so every day. Sometimes wearing a dress wasn’t practical (like when Jim was helping with work in engineering) or he just didn’t feel like it.

There were even a few other crewmen who started wearing dresses. Some did it just for kicks or to have the experience once, but a couple wore dresses regularly.


	2. Captain Burnham

But one day, another Captain came on board the ship. It wouldn’t have been anything unusual except that Jim happened to be wearing a dress that day.

“What is this, Kirk? I thought you were a real man, not some pansy queer,” Captain Burnham said.

“The Captain is not breaking any regulations, sir,” Spock replied in his usual monotone.

“I fail to see how the Captain’s clothing has any bearing on his ability to command,” Uhura said.

“It’s just disgusting: a man wearing women’s clothing. A queer can’t command a starship,” the rude Captain continued.

“Captain Kirk is best Captain in the ‘Fleet, and regardless of whether he really is, as you say, queer or not, my opinion would not change. It would be bit hypocritical, being gay myself,” Sulu yelled angrily.

“A ship full of queers. I would never have believed it. Disgusting, that’s what it is.”

At this point Jim finally stepped in, “Captain Burnham, that is enough. Now, since you have proven that you are unwilling to be respectful, I would kindly ask that you remove yourself from my starship before I am forced to remove you myself.”

The crew cheered Jim on as he forcibly led the other Captain to the transporter room.


	3. Back at the Academy

The story made its way around Starfleet quickly. There were plenty of people who agreed with Captain Burnham, but there were also those who celebrated the acceptance of the Enterprise crew.

The gossip moved on to other subjects eventually, but people remembered. And the next time the Enterprise was docked on Earth, Jim had a student at the academy approach him.

“Uh, Captain Kirk,” they said, “my name is Alex Toledano, and I just wanted to say that I really admire you. I’m president of the little LGBTQ+ group at the academy; there aren’t many of us, but we’re growing. I’m actually asexual myself, which is why I got involved with the group, and I spend a lot of my time and energy outside of classes—and sometimes in them—on education and advocacy. I can’t believe this is still necessary in the 23rd century. But anyways, I think it’s really awesome how accepting the Enterprise is. Sorry for rambling at you; I just can’t believe I really met you! Oh, and my pronouns are they, them, their, and theirs. It was so amazing to meet you.”

“It was nice to meet you too, Alex. It’s nice to see people who are passionate about things, and I’m glad the group is growing. How would you like a guest or two at your next meeting? The Enterprise is docked here for a fortnight at least.”

Alex’s jaw dropped, and after a moment of astonished silence, they gasped, “yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry if this is an unsatisfactory ending, but this fic has been sitting incomplete for way too long, and I just wanted to get it finished somewhat properly.

Alex was trying to wrangle everyone but only half-way succeeding. Young adults were notoriously difficult animals to wrangle to begin with, but they had also made the mistake of announcing in advance that the famous Captain Kirk was coming to the Queer Frontier meeting. It was only when the guest of honor himself arrived that people began to quiet down. Captain Kirk was accompanied by Lieutenant Sulu who had been a part of Queer Frontier when he was a student at the Academy.

“Hello,” Jim began. “A lot og you may recognize me, but I’ll go ahead and introduce myself. I’m Jim Kirk, Captain of the USS Enterprise.”

“And I’m the helmsman of the Enterprise, Hikaru Sulu. I was a member of this same group when I was at the Academy, and I can say that we never had this many people at an event.”

Alex asked for their pronouns and anything they wanted to share about their queer identity. Hikaru responded first, “He/him/his. I’m gay. I’ve been out since I first realized what being gay was as a child. My family and friends have never been anything but supportive, but even in the 23rd century, there are still bigots out there that I’ve run into.”

“I’m not much of a label guy myself. I’ve never cared much for trying to label my sexuality, though I guess pansexual would be the closest term to how I feel about my sexuality. I’ve never been concerned about gender or even species when dating or hooking-up. I just like who I like. As far as gender goes, I feel pretty much the same. I’m mostly masculine, and people perceive me as a man. But the binary system most humans use to categorize gender is so faulty and incomplete. You’d think after encountering so many species with so many different conceptions of and terms for sex and gender, we would have realized that, but apparently not. So, mostly I just use he/him because that’s what people automatically say, but I really don’t care. I know it’s important to a lot of people, but as I said, I’m not a labels guy, and it doesn’t matter to me.”

“Does anyone have any questions for our guests?” Alex asked when they were done.

There were a variety of questions about how they had first realized or learned about their sexuality, some personal questions about dating history aimed more at Jim who did his best to satisfy the curiosity behind the more polite questions, and there were questions about gender and sexuality in different alien species they had encountered on the Enterprise.

And inevitably a question came up about Jim’s habit of wearing a dress on the Enterprise. “Originally it was just something I did because I had lost a bet. I’ve never been too concerned about gender roles and whatnot, but I don’t think I’d ever worn a dress in public before and certainly hadn’t considered wearing a uniform one. But I realized it was actually pretty comfortable once I adjusted to the breeziness. And it made some people question their stupid stereotypes. But my favorite thing was when I realized that it also helped people stop second-guessing their desires. There are crew-members on the Enterprise who finally felt free or gained the confidence to wear a different uniform. Though Starfleet does have uniforms there are a few variations of those uniforms, and people should be free to wear whichever one they feel most comfortable in.”

“Thank you, Captain Kirk, Lieutenant Sulu. I hope we are seeing the beginning of another step towards true equality and the end of bigotry. Thank you so much for coming and talking with us.”

**Author's Note:**

> I anticipate adding more to this work, but I wanted to go ahead and post something.
> 
> The scene with Jim tailoring his own dress doesn't quite fit, but I liked it too much to get rid of it.
> 
> Future editing may change the chapter numbers or order of parts of the story, or add more text to parts of it. I will try to note when this happens, but keep an eye out for anything that doesn't seem to make sense if you follow this story.
> 
> Please give me feedback!


End file.
